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The heads of Canada’s law schools oppose Trinity Western University’s attempts to star the country’s first religious law school.

The Council of Canadian Law Deans has distributed a letter criticizing the evangelical Christian university’s long-standing requirement that faculty and students refrain from homosexual relationships.

“It’s very troubling for Canadian law school deans,” Bill Flanagan, president of the Canadian Council of Law Deans, said in an interview this week.

The deans’ objection is Trinity Western University’s Bible-based “community covenant,” which the council says makes clear that “gay, lesbian or bisexual students may be subject to disciplinary measures including expulsion.”

In a letter to the Federation of Canadian Law Societies, which has been distributed widely on law school campuses across Canada, Flanagan writes: “This is a matter of great concern for all members. … Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is unlawful in Canada and fundamentally at odds with the core values of all Canadian law schools.”

Despite receiving a copy of the letter from the law deans, Trinity Western University’s website continued to maintain this week that the Langley university has “consulted widely with lawyers, judges, academics and professional organizations” about starting a Christian law school — and “none of these have expressed serious concern.”

The president of TWU, Jonathan Raymond, responded to the law deans in a Nov. 29 letter.

Citing TWU’s earlier legal dispute with the B.C. College of Teachers, Raymond noted the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2001 that a religious school can exempt itself from human rights legislation forbidding discrimination against homosexuals.

The Supreme Court of Canada declared that TWU administrators have the right to require their staff, faculty and students refrain from homosexual relationships, based on the principles of “freedom of conscience and religion.”

TWU’s “community covenant” code also bans such activities as “gossip,” “lying” and drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes on campus.

In addition to opposing TWU’s ban on homosexual behaviour, Flanagan said the country’s law school deans join the Canadian Association of University Teachers in questioning whether authentic academic freedom exists at TWU, since all faculty must agree to the Bible-based standards.

TWU’s proposed law school, which is being spearheaded by self-described “Christian advocate” Janet Epp-Buckingham, seeks to enrol 60 law students in each year of a three-year program.

In a column in a leading Canadian evangelical magazine, Epp-Buckingham said her mission is to “develop Godly leaders for the marketplaces of life.” Christians, she said, often face a “hostile environment” in secular law schools.

As former legal counsel for the Ottawa-based Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Epp-Buckingham has frequently written columns in Christian media and has fought many battles against homosexual marriage, Canadian abortion laws and efforts to legalize and regulate assisted suicide.

Epp-Buckingham is director of Ottawa’s Laurentian Leadership Centre, which TWU set up in 1999 to train 40 students a year to become Christian advocates in federal politics, the media and public policy.

In an interview from Ottawa, Epp-Buckingham said she is disappointed the Council of Canadian Law Deans is opposing a law school at TWU. But she said she remains confident it will eventually be accredited.

The deans’ council addressed its letter opposing a law school at TWU to Gerald Tremblay, president of the Federation of Canadian Law Societies. That is the body that decides whether a new law school can open in Canada.

In 2011, it gave approval to Thompson Rivers University to launch B.C.’s third law school, enrolling 75 students a year. Canada has 16 law schools, all in secular universities.

The federation confirmed it is reviewing TWU’s application, But, in an email, Tremblay said, “It is our policy not to discuss the committee’s work while it is still ongoing.”

One of many arguments Epp-Buckingam made for her dream of a law school at TWU is based on her view that Canada’s public law schools are “very similar to one another.”

The U.S. has about 30 Catholic and Protestant law schools, Epp-Buckingham said, so it makes sense Canada could have one that is Christian.

However, Flanagan, who is dean of Queen’s University Faculty of Law, said “there’s a case to be made there are too many law schools in the U.S.”

Canada does not necessarily have an excess of law students, Flanagan said, but there is growing concern it is already hard for many to obtain articling positions.

In her columns in Faith Today, Canadian Christianity and Cardus magazine, Epp-Buckingham regularly criticizes secular institutions, including politicians and media outlets.

In one column in Christianity Today, Epp-Buckingham maintained Christians students attending Canadian law schools are often told by Christian lawyers to “keep your head down and your mouth shut.”

But, in the online version of her column, some Christian commenters wrote that Epp-Buckingham’s view reflects an outdated “bunker mentality,” and noted that the University of B.C.’s law school, for instance, has a Christian Law Students Association.

In this week’s interview, Epp-Buckingham continued to emphasize that Christians at public Canadian law schools “often find their beliefs to be marginalized,” with professors “portraying people of faith as … people who are irrational.”

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Proposed Christian law school at Trinity Western under fire because of university’s anti-gay rules

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